June 2026 Edition

June 2026 was the month the convergence stopped being a thesis and became a series of milestones in the rearview mirror. Antares Nuclear achieved Mark-0 first criticality at Idaho National Laboratory, the first privately developed non-light-water reactor to go critical in the United States in over forty years, and a month ahead of the July 4 federal target. Anduril won the CCA Increment 1 production contract, the first time in more than fifty years a new company has won a U.S. fighter aircraft contract. SpaceX completed the largest IPO in history. A U.S.-Iran framework was signed mid-month, then immediately stress-tested by renewed strikes in the Strait of Hormuz. And we closed on a new investment into Dominion Dynamics, alongside the largest Series A in Canadian defense history.

For deeper analysis on the industry, my Substack Investing in Organized Chaos continues to publish on these themes. Each piece connects directly back to where we invest and how Cyrus is positioned.

Portfolio Spotlight

Cyrus is proud to support transformative companies building the physical backbone of American dominance:

Arbor Energy

Arbor continued executing on ATLAS pilot commissioning and HALCYON 25 MW commercial system engineering. The Department of Energy's Carbon Negative Shot pilot program (FOA 3082), under which Arbor is deploying ATLAS as a Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage demonstration across sites in West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, continues to provide a federal anchor for the carbon-negative operations strategy. With CCO Nishad Pai now in seat, the team is actively negotiating direct power purchase agreements with tier-one hyperscalers building against the GridMarket framework. The team's focus is on direct-power transaction agreements rather than turbine sales, positioning Arbor as a utility-scale power provider delivering clean baseload directly to energy-constrained AI infrastructure.

Icarus

Icarus reached a major government engagement milestone in June. During Exercise Valiant Shield 2026 in Guam, the U.S. Army's 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force conducted a multi-day Special User Demonstration of the Apollo R stratospheric platform at Orote Airfield, Naval Station Guam on June 24. Soldiers from the 3rd MDTF evaluated the aircraft against multi-domain experimentation objectives, generating user data designed to inform future acquisition decisions. The Apollo R was launched via Urban Sky high-altitude balloon and tested for stratospheric sensor and joint communications network capabilities in the Indo-Pacific operating environment. This is the technical rehearsal ahead of the previously disclosed August 2026 Army demonstration milestone, and a meaningful step toward formal procurement consideration.

Volund Manufacturing

Volund announced a $12M seed financing round on June 9, co-led by Root Ventures and Squadra Ventures with participation from Marlinspike, First In, and Output Ventures. Capital is being deployed to expand the facility footprint, scale engineering, and finalize the design of Volund's first product, a 100-pound thrust class turbojet engine engineered for the Family of Affordable Mass Missiles program and attritable cruise/UAS applications. Volund continues to operate a custom, software-driven Manufacturing Execution System that creates a digital thread from CAD directly to production ERP, minimizing back-office overhead and allowing engineering changes to flow to the factory floor automatically. Prototype flight testing is targeted for late 2026, with initial volume production beginning in early 2027. The team is positioned for the CCA Increment 2 engine competition expected to follow the just-awarded Increment 1 production contracts.

Investment Opportunities & Updates

Our SPV positions continue to demonstrate significant momentum:

Anduril Industries

Anduril had a historic month, even by recent standards.

On June 17, the Air Force awarded Anduril the CCA Increment 1 production contract for the FQ-44A "Fury" alongside General Atomics' FQ-42A. This is the first time in over 50 years that a new company has won a U.S. fighter aircraft contract. The award came four months ahead of schedule. Anduril will deliver the initial set of production Fury aircraft from Arsenal-1 in Ohio, with the runway set for additional production lots across the coming years. Arsenal-1 is rated to produce 150 Fury aircraft per year at full rate. Anduril, RTX Collins Aerospace, and Shield AI were also selected to compete on the autonomy software layer that will power CCA mission systems.

On June 22, the U.S. Army selected Anduril as the lead integrator for its Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) common data layer baseline. Under the multi-year contract, Anduril is deploying an edge-to-cloud data mesh integrating Lattice with Palantir's Foundry and the Raft Data Platform, building the modern C2 backbone for tactical units.

The Barracuda-500M framework continues to scale, with deliveries of the 3,000-round minimum order targeted to begin in the first half of 2027 alongside containerized launchers. Anduril's $5B Series H at a $61B valuation, closed last month, is funding all of it.

Antares Nuclear

On June 4 at approximately 12:30 MDT, Antares Nuclear's Mark-0 microreactor achieved initial criticality at Idaho National Laboratory. This is the first privately developed non-light-water reactor to reach criticality in the United States in over forty years, and the first reactor under the DOE Reactor Pilot Program to satisfy Executive Order 14301. The Mark-0 is a sodium heat-pipe-cooled microreactor fueled by HALEU TRISO compacts fabricated by BWX Technologies. The same fuel architecture and reactor design will support the Mark-1 electricity-producing demonstration in 2027, with commercial R1 microreactor deployment targeted at Joint Base San Antonio by 2028 under the Air Force's ANPI program.

CEO Jordan Bramble captured the moment: "We said criticality in 2026, electricity production in 2027, and power to the warfighter in 2028. Today is the first of those commitments delivered on the schedule we set."

Energy Secretary Chris Wright called it "a historic moment for American nuclear energy." Mark-0 is the 53rd reactor built at the INL site since 1951, and the first novel reactor design to achieve criticality at the laboratory in more than 50 years.

This milestone alone validates the structural read on the entire nuclear position. Antares is now executing against a defined commercial roadmap with federal infrastructure, military procurement, and hyperscaler demand all converging into the same timeline.

Chaos Inc.

Chaos's VANQUISH continues operating under the U.S. Army's G-TEAD Marketplace, with the company maintaining active on-site presence supporting NATO partners through training, integration, and rapid software updates. No new contract awards were publicly disclosed this period, but the structural advantage of being on the G-TEAD platform is that it bypasses traditional procurement timelines for ASCC commands and NATO partners. Watch for deployment activity tied to Valiant Shield 2026 and follow-on European exercises later this year.

Critical Loop

Critical Loop continues scaling deployment toward the 100+ MWh target for 2026, with U.S.-made LG Energy Solution Vertech batteries running across 67+ active nodes. The CPUC's Decision 26-02-025, formally adopted earlier this year, codified the Standard Offer for Flexible Service Connections, a regulatory tailwind that turns Critical Loop's behind-the-meter strategy into the default pathway for grid-constrained industrial customers in California. The team is actively deploying capital to expand the supply chain and launch operations in grid-constrained regions beyond California.

Dominion Dynamics

We are pleased to announce our latest investment into Dominion Dynamics, which closed a $100M USD Series A on June 30, the largest Series A in Canadian defense history. The round was led by Georgian, Canada's largest VC, with participation from Valor Equity Partners, OMERS Ventures, Lakestar, BDC Capital's Strong North Fund, Deloitte Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada, Bessemer Venture Partners, BCI, and ourselves.

Dominion is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, founded by Eliot Pence, a former Anduril executive who led the company's international growth. Dominion is building Canada's Arctic autonomy stack, an integrated sensing, autonomy, communications, and command-and-control platform for the most exposed NATO operating environment. The flagship product, AuraNet, is a decentralized telemetry fusion platform that was deployed alongside the Canadian Armed Forces during Operation Nanook-Nunalivut earlier this year, providing Canadian Rangers a unified operating picture across the Northwest Passage. The company is also developing Scout, an autonomous "wingman" drone platform designed for F-35 integration in Arctic environments, and Ice Spike, an ice-penetrating maritime node.

Canada has formally hit NATO's 2% GDP defense target and committed to 3.5% by 2030 plus 1.5% in critical defense investments, a total of 5% combined. The Carney government has mandated that 70% of military procurement go to domestic firms. Arctic sovereignty and NORAD modernization are now top-tier policy priorities. Dominion is the sovereign capability builder at the center of this push, and Pence has been named to PM Carney's advisory council on Canada-U.S. economic relations.

Gitai

GitAI continued executing on the Space-Based Interceptor program with a clean strategic decision to defer its planned in-orbit robotic servicing mission to 2028 or later to fully prioritize the SBI program. The company is building spacecraft, avionics, software, robotics, solid rocket motors, and mission systems entirely in-house. GitAI also confirmed completion of the flight model for its S3 robotic satellite mission this month, including thermal vacuum testing of the Inchworm-type robotic arm at TRL-6. The S3 program continues to support GitAI's joint contract with JAXA for the Artemis pressurized lunar rover.

The SBI pivot signals a clear hierarchy: defense work as the highest-priority near-term commercial path, with civil space and lunar infrastructure programs sequenced behind it. This is exactly the kind of focus we underwrite at the SPV level.

Hemispheric AI

Hemispheric continues operating in stealth. We expect emergence on the company's own timeline in the near future.

Impulse Space 

Impulse Space closed a $500M Series D on June 1, co-led by 137 Ventures and BANNER VC with participation from Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Linse Capital, at a $4.26B valuation. Total funding now exceeds $1 billion. The VICTUS SURGO mission (Helios's first orbital operation) has shifted to a 2027 first-flight target. Engine testing on Helios and Rigel continues at the Mojave facility, and the company's role on Anduril's Golden Dome SBI team continues to anchor the national security side of the business alongside its commercial in-space mobility franchise. SES recently signed a multi-launch agreement for Helios Transport Services, a meaningful commercial validation.

Stoke Space

Stoke completed proto-qualification of the Nova first stage at its Moses Lake test site in early June, clearing the technical path to first flight from Cape Canaveral LC-14 by year-end. Cape Canaveral conversion remains on schedule, and Zenith engine testing cadence continues. AstroForge remains the confirmed payload customer for the demo flight. Stoke's Series D extension to $860M (announced in February) and subsequent activity has brought total funding to roughly $1.34 billion. NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 eligibility unlocks once Nova achieves first launch.

Market Insights

SpaceX Begins Trading Under $SPCX ( ▲ 4.06% )  

SpaceX priced its IPO at $135 per share on June 11 and began trading on Nasdaq under ticker SPCX on June 12, raising approximately $75 billion, the largest IPO in recorded history. The stock closed its first trading day at $160.95 (+19.2%), pushing the company's market cap above $2.1 trillion and briefly making it the sixth-largest publicly traded company in the world. $SPCX ( ▲ 4.06% ) hit an all-time high of $225.64 on June 15, pulled back to $147.11 on June 22 following an aggressive $25B corporate bond offering, and closed June at $171.44. CFRA's Keith Snyder assigned a sell rating with a $115 target citing the implied growth runway; Morningstar values the company at roughly $780B on fundamentals. Wedbush issued an Outperform with a $190 price target on June 30.

The trading multiple at the IPO roughly 100x trailing revenue, is now a reference point for all of defense-space tech. That reference point matters for every portfolio name approaching liquidity over the next 24 months.

Antares Validates the Nuclear Renaissance

The June 4 Mark-0 criticality didn't happen in isolation. Valar Atomics' Ward 250 reactor went critical on June 18 at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab, the second criticality under the DOE Reactor Pilot Program, and the first DOE-authorized reactor built outside a national laboratory. With Radiant Industries tracking toward DOME entry by July 4, the EO 14301 three-reactor mandate appears likely to be met on schedule. The signal across capital markets has been immediate: public nuclear comps ($OKLO ( ▼ 0.82% ) , $SMR ( ▼ 2.24% ) ) repriced upward through June. Meta committed to procure up to 6.6 GW of nuclear power earlier this year; NVIDIA and Microsoft announced an "AI for nuclear" collaboration in March. The structural read is that microreactor demand for AI infrastructure is the cleanest pull-through in the energy stack, and Antares is now the proof-of-concept for the entire category.

Iran Framework Signed, Then Stress-Tested

A U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding was signed on June 17 at the G7 summit, establishing a 14-point framework including an immediate ceasefire, the termination of the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and a 60-day window for final-deal negotiations. The MOU included a 60-day crude oil export waiver for Iran, with a planned regional-partner-funded $300B reconstruction program to follow.

The framework was immediately stress-tested. On June 27, an Iranian drone targeted a cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, triggering retaliatory CENTCOM strikes. On June 28, the IRGC launched a coordinated missile and drone attack against eight U.S. military facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain. As of June 30, negotiations have resumed in Doha but the framework remains fragile.

The defense industrial implications are unchanged. The Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin a $35 billion contract to scale THAAD production from 96 to 400 interceptors per year through 2032, and the White House is seeking $87.6 billion in emergency funding including $21 billion for munitions replenishment. The Anduril Barracuda-500M framework is one of the largest single beneficiaries of this multi-year mobilization.

Until Next Time

June 2026 closed the loop on every major thesis the firm has been positioned against. Nuclear criticality. The largest IPO in history. A new fighter contract awarded to a non-traditional prime for the first time in over half a century. A peace framework, however fragile. And a new sovereign Arctic capability. The convergence of defense production and energy infrastructure is no longer something we're tracking, it's something we're inside of.

If you're in LA, reach out. Always happy to connect.

Regards,
Jordan Yashari
Founder & General Partner
Cyrus Ventures